Do corporate annual reports communicate corporate strategy?

Abstract

This paper studies communication of corporate strategy through annual reports to their stakeholders. Content analysis of MD&A sections of annual reports of large Indian firms was done to explore strategy content, positive nature of text (existence of Pollyanna effect), and presence of self-serving attributions. It was found that ftrms focus their communication on describing the external business environment, an analysis of their actions and strategies, and the resulting performance over the past year(s), rather than discuss the future. A relatively smaller proportion of text is devoted to discussing the mandated risks and concerns, and future outlook, and a much lesser proportion to the firm's planned course of action? strategy for the future.